Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

megasad · 07:11 AM

I remember reading, long ago, that you could use an image file with transparent elements as your desktop image, so that if you were to change the background colour, the image would fit right in, you wouldn't have to recreate it with the new background colour. Can anyone else remember this? And does anyone know the exact settings? I've tried to create said image as both a TIFF and a PNG in Photoshop, but whenever I apply them as my Desktop image, where they should be transparent they are black.

Help?

philzilla · Mar 1, 2003, 08:35 AM

you should really ask this in Art & Graphic Design. it's not really an OS X issue, but an image editing issue. you'll probably get more answers there

megasad · Mar 1, 2003, 08:45 AM

Originally posted by philzilla:
you should really ask this in Art & Graphic Design. it's not really an OS X issue, but an image editing issue. you'll probably get more answers there

I figured it was more to do with OS X, it being to do with how said OS displays desktop images, but I have asked it there as well, in the hope I'll get an answer.

OwlBoy · Mar 1, 2003, 10:11 AM

It worked in OS 9, dunno about OS X.

-Owl

ReggieX · Mar 1, 2003, 12:35 PM

OS 9 could do it because there were 2 seperate elements to the desktop, a background tile and a picture that overlayed on top of it. You could have a solid background and then put a GIF picture on top and the transparency would show the background colour. OS X doesn't do that, so it won't work.

[APi]TheMan · Mar 1, 2003, 12:50 PM

Anyone remember the nifty little trick where you could save an image of certain shade of green and put it as your desktop (in OSX) and then when you use DVDPlayer.app it would bleed through to the desktop, as if your DVD was actually on the desktop?

spauldingg · Mar 1, 2003, 01:54 PM

green background trick

edited to add transparent image on desktop

[APi]TheMan · Mar 1, 2003, 03:28 PM

Originally posted by spauldingg:
green background trick

edited to add transparent image on desktop

Thanks.

spauldingg · Mar 2, 2003, 07:34 AM

your welcome.
Now maybe someone could help me with my little problem. I want to watch DVDs on my second smaller monitor. Dragging the window doesn't work. any thoughts?

megasad · Mar 2, 2003, 07:37 AM

Originally posted by spauldingg:
...edited to add transparent image on desktop

Alas, I don't have a clue how to do what it describes in Photoshop, and since this was more a query of interest than need I think I'll forget about it. Thanks though.

Coxy · Mar 2, 2003, 07:38 AM

Use VLC. It's free, and availiable on VersionTracker.

sushiism · Mar 2, 2003, 07:48 AM

vlc pretty much killed my mac last night, just played a movie and it would do the first second of sound then freeze, freeze every single thing apart from the menu. You couldnt click on the menu bits but you could click on app wiondows and the menu would update to that apps menu butyou couldnt use it and force quit wouldnt work at all

megasad · Mar 2, 2003, 08:30 AM

Originally posted by sushiism:
vlc pretty much killed my mac last night, just played a movie and it would do the first second of sound then freeze, freeze every single thing apart from the menu. You couldnt click on the menu bits but you could click on app wiondows and the menu would update to that apps menu butyou couldnt use it and force quit wouldnt work at all

Are you using the latest version? Since 0.5.0, VLC has not been good to me. I can start a movie fine, but once it's going, woe upon any who try and stop it. So I've gone back to 0.4.6 for now.

ReggieX · Mar 2, 2003, 10:52 AM

Yeah, vlc 5 is a real processor hog, but it does do more things. I switch between the two depending on what I'm doing.